29 Jul 2012

China drops waste water project after protest

3:24 pm on 29 July 2012

China is scrapping plans to build an industrial waste pipeline after after angry demonstrators occupied a government office, destroying computers and overturning cars.

About 1000 protesters marched through the city of Qidong, about an hour north of Shanghai, shouting slogans against the pipeline.

The planned pipeline would have emptied waste water from a Japanese-owned paper factory into the sea near Qidong.

Several protesters entered the city government's main building where they smashed computers, overturned desks and threw documents out the windows to loud cheers from the crowd. Reuters witnessed five cars and one minibus being overturned.

At least two police officers were dragged into the crowd at the government office and punched and beaten.

It was the second cancellation of an industrial project this month, as officials buckle under pressure from protests, Reuters reports.